Publisher: The Poetry Business
Notes on Water is made up of two compelling and very moving poems, which speak to each other and to the heart of the reader. They are the work of a remarkable poet, writing in the darkest of times with urgency and grace. Presented in tête-bêche style with black and white photographs. A version of the text was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in March 2022.
The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. Set in the Kingdom of Denmark, the play dramatizes the revenge Prince Hamlet exacts on his uncle Claudius for murdering King Hamlet, Claudius's brother and Prince Hamlet's father, and then succeeding to the throne and taking as his wife Gertrude, the old king's widow and Prince Hamlet's mother. The play vividly portrays both true and feigned madness – from overwhelming grief to seething rage – and explores themes of treachery, revenge, incest, and moral corruption.Show book
'I don't get angry, people get angry at me. In fact, I've only ever sworn once in a car… in English.' In a hotel basement somewhere in Birmingham, three people – a nurse, a delivery driver and an entrepreneur – are attending a speed-awareness course to address their aggressive driving. Abz, a leading expert on road safety and the most in-demand course facilitator north of the M25, presents them with a choice: change your ways, or lose your licence. But the training course quickly veers into a tumultuous group-therapy session as they are forced to confront the real question: why are we all so angry? Mohamed-Zain Dada's play Speed is a breakneck journey through the daily annoyances and deep-buried secrets that leave us spinning. Wickedly comic and darkly thrilling, it was first performed at the Bush Theatre, London, in 2025, directed by Milli Bhatia.Show book
Hannah More was born on February 2nd, 1745 at Fishponds in the parish of Stapleton, near Bristol. She was the fourth of five daughters. The City of Bristol, at that time, was a centre for slave-trading and Hannah would, over time, become one of its staunchest critics. She was keen to learn, possessed a sharp intellect and was assiduous in studying. Hannah first wrote in 1762 with The Search after Happiness (by the mid-1780s some 10,000 copies had been sold). In 1767 Hannah became engaged to William Turner. After six years, with no wedding in sight, the engagement was broken off. Turner then bestowed upon her an annual annuity of £200. This was enough to meet her needs and set her free to pursue a literary career. Her first play, The Inflexible Captive, was staged at Bath in 1775. The famous David Garrick himself produced her next play, Percy, in 1777 as well as writing both the Prologue and Epilogue for it. It was a great success when performed at Covent Garden in December of that year. Hannah turned to religious writing with Sacred Dramas in 1782; it rapidly ran through nineteen editions. These and the poems Bas-Bleu and Florio (1786) mark her gradual transition to a more serious and considered view of life. Hannah contributed much to the newly-founded Abolition Society including, in February 1788, her publication of Slavery, a Poem recognised as one of the most important of the abolition period. Her work now became more evangelical. In the 1790s she wrote several Cheap Repository Tracts which covered moral, religious and political topics and were both for sale or distributed to literate poor people. The most famous is, perhaps, The Shepherd of Salisbury Plain, describing a family of incredible frugality and contentment. Two million copies of these were circulated, in one year. In 1789, she purchased a small house at Cowslip Green in Somerset. She was instrumental in setting up twelve schools in the area by 1800. She continued to oppose slavery throughout her life, but at the time of the Abolition Bill of 1807, her health did not permit her to take as active a role in the movement as she had done in the late 1780s, although she maintained a correspondence with Wilberforce and others. In July 1833, the Bill to abolish slavery throughout the British Empire passed in the House of Commons, followed by the House of Lords on August 1st. Hannah More died on September 7th, 1833.Show book
John Milton's On the Morning of Christ's Nativity is no ordinary Christmas poem. Written when he was just twenty-one, it reveals an early glimpse of the depth and ambition that would later shape Paradise Lost. Here, the nativity is not sentimental but cosmic: a quiet moment that echoes across heaven, earth, and myth. This is poetry as vision—blending classical imagery, biblical themes, and rich musical language. Angels descend, stars pause in wonder, and the natural world falls into a hush. Pagan gods retreat into silence, as if even they recognize the shift in power. The newborn Christ is portrayed not as a helpless child but as a divine force whose presence alters the very fabric of time and meaning. Milton's language is grand but not distant. Each stanza is alive with texture, rhythm, and the gravity of ideas beyond the page. This is not a poem that tells a story—it opens a door. And on the other side is a world both ancient and eternal, where poetry and theology walk hand in hand. Listeners will find here not just a work of seasonal reverence but a meditative, imaginative journey. It's a bold start from a young poet already aware of the weight of words—and how they can shape both heaven and earth.Show book
Playful, formal, satirical and tender, the poems in The Fabulanarchist Luxury Uprising are wildly wide-ranging. Jack Houston whisks the reader through meditations on family life, the teachings of Lucretius, the sexual potential of Captain Barnacles, and dreams of a socialist utopia, managing to be both deeply weird and touching. In his debut pamphlet, Houston draws out and scrutinises the mundanities of life, showing how they can form part of something much bigger. His poems aim to awaken the capacity for revolution within us all, even if it only gets us as far as the roundabout in the local playpark. "In the year 2121, we're all now too aware that a sofa is simply a bench constructed from the hewn corpse of a tree, covered in a mesh made from the amniotic fibres of oppressedly mono-cropped cotton plants & filled with the plumage from many a murdered full-grown duck [...]" - from 'Utopia'Show book
"Paradise Lost" is an epic poem written by the 17th-century English poet John Milton. First published in 1667, the poem tells the biblical tale of the fall of man, detailing the rebellion of Satan and his followers, their expulsion from Heaven, and the consequences of Adam and Eve's sin in the Garden of Eden. Written in blank verse, the poem grapples with intricate theological issues, including fate, free will, and the nature of evil, while also exploring the human condition and the complexities of temptation and redemption. "Paradise Lost" is considered one of the most important works in the English literary canon.Show book
